Nationalist Scots’ hope

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33460, 15 February 1974, Page 9

Nationalist Scots’ hope

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) GLASGOW, Feb. 14.

The fuel crisis that overshadows the British General Election has inspired Scottish nationalists to hope for their biggest boost since the days of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

It is fuel, and, more specifically, oil, that could make this election different from others in which the Scottish National Party has suffered persistent humiliation.

The newly-discovered oilfields off the Scottish coast should be pumping ashore 3 million barrels a day by the end of the decade — a production rate well up in world statistics. The message of the Nationalists is simple: Scots, they say, should keep the oil profits, and not let them flow south to rescue the remainder of Britain from insolvency. “We hold the oil cards, and so we are the important part of Britain now,” cries the blond and buxom Mrs Margo MacDonald, the present heroine of the nationalist movement, at impassioned street-corner rallies in Glasgow’s Govan constituency. The Conservative and Labour Parties are also well

aware of the political significance of oil: Labour has promised to nationalise it, and the Conservatives say that they will increase taxation of the oil companies. Mrs MacDonald, who is 29 and the mother of two children, scored a shock victory by capturing Govan for the S.N.P, in a Parliamentary byelection last October. Her winning margin was a slender 571 votes, but it was counted a great triumph to defeat the Labour Party, which had held the shabby working-class section of Glasgow for most of the century. Her success, coupled with recent opinion poll findings, have convinced the nationalists that they may at last be on a winning streak.

In addition to Mrs MacDonald, they had one other member in the now-dissolved House of Commons: Mr Donald Stewart, a businessman, won a seat for them in the 1970 General Election. In the voting on February 28, the S.NIP. is fighting all but one of Scotland’s 71 Parliamentary districts, and hopes to emerge with a total of between five and 10 of 650 seats in the new House of Commons. Such a success would provide a useful Parliamentary pressure group, and give the S.N.P. by far the largest representation it has ever had in Parliament, but the nationalists would still be a long way from their main aim: independence from the remainder of Britain.

Scotland’s integration with Britain dates from the Treaty of Union in 1707, since when the only time a Scottish cause has looked like prevailing against England was the rebellion of 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie led an invading army half-way to London.

In modern times, the nationalist argument is that Scottish resources have been drained off for the benefit of southern interests, leaving Scotland the poorest part of the British mainland. The S.N.P. claims that oil could make Scotland the richest nation in Europe instead of “a tail-end Charlie” to the remainder of the European Community. Some of its leaders like to think of a Scotland patterned on Norway: rich with oil, an integral part of the West, but aloof from the Common Market hierarchy in Brussels. Political experts agree that the S.N.P. could enjoy a burst of popularity in the present election, but few give much for the chances of the party’s long-term goals. Commentators note that previous spurts of nationalist success quickly petered out.

And Bonnie Prince Charlie himsel* ended in inglorious defeat.